Pop song '24-7' opened Saylor's Spotify success

Monday

Take a look at Columbus singer-songwriter Spencer Saylor's Spotify page and numbers from his No. 1 streaming song can lead one to believe he's not local.

Although it's not the case that Saylor has achieved renowned acclaim, he did, however, manage to crack Spotify's playlist-plucking algorithm with the catchy, light-hearted love song "24-7."

Still, the journey the track took to surpass 1 million plays took many years.

"It's a song that started out written on a scrap piece of paper years prior to recording it, and then years after recording it, it's now had that success," Saylor said during the latest In The Record Store podcast.

The words on that scrap piece of paper were shared with longtime companion and "The Voice" contestant Chris Jamison. Sharing a dorm room and the desire to become career musicians, Jamison and Saylor spent one of their first nights at Capital University crafting what would become a breakthrough hit for the local pop artist.

What started as friends simply beginning their dreams at Capital's Conservatory of Music by freestyling emotions onto college-ruled paper quickly changed gears.

When local producer Jay Olson brought his trap-pop approach to the table, one instrumental struck the same chords that Saylor and Jamison were hitting on a year prior.

The song had a digital release in 2013, but it was only a couple years later when curated Spotify playlists -- including popular music exploration platform Discover Weekly -- picked up "24-7." Its calming, centering keystrokes, accompanied with lush vocals, are met with twinkling synthesizers and deep bass hits, an infectious recipe for pop hits of the past decade, making for ripe fruit in the eyes of Spotify pickers.

"To be able to open a line to a booking agent or a promoter or anyone like that with something like that is instantly dollar signs in their eyes," Saylor said.

Although there is scrutiny behind how much money musicians see from streaming successes, Saylor acknowledged that success in the music business starts and finishes with a dedication to touring.

Spotify, with its location analytics, still has lent a hand, though.

"It's really neat to know that if I want to hit the road, there's people that have heard of me in that area, and I might at least see 10 or 15 people in the crowd, because prior to that, it would've been an empty bar I was playing to," Saylor said.

Zak Kolesar is executive editor for In The Record Store. ThisWeek publishes a weekly feature from the organization, which focuses on central Ohio music discovery and involvement.

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